If You're Happy and You Know It, Eat Some Carbs

Summer suppers at our house are usually some sort of grilled protein and a salad.  It's too hot to consider much else (and cooking roles reverse, with Andrew on the grill and me on chop chop duty.) 

But yesterday was all rainy and junky, so chili and biscuits were on order.  My great uncle Jon's chili recipe nearly serves all of Clifton...I improvised it down to half that and still had a large dutch oven full.

Because the biscuits were a spur of the moment idea, I needed to find a non-buttermilk recipe.  If you don't have buttermilk, you can add 1 tablespoon of vinegar to 1 c of milk, but the recipe I found needed 1 1/4 c buttermilk (and my brain doesn't work well with maths.) 

Thank goodness for the bridal edition of the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook.  They have a non-buttermilk recipe (plus a drop biscuit and buttermilk biscuit variety).  All ingredients were on hand, so it was on!

Biscuits:

3 c. flour
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. cream of tartar
1 stick butter, cold, cut into pieces
1/4 c. shortening
1 c. milk

Preheat oven to 450.  Mix the dry ingredients together.  Cut in the butter and shortening until it resembles coarse crumbs.  Form a well in center of mix and pour in milk.  Stir with a fork until just combined.  Turn out dough onto lightly floured surface and knead dough by folding and gently pressing until dough holds together.  Pat or roll out to 3/4 inch thickness.  Cut dough with biscuit cutter and re-roll and cut scraps.  Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet 10-14 minutes or until golden. 

Golden.  And delicious.  I'm surprised we have any left!

Serve warm.  Like I needed to tell you that.  Make these.  Put Pillsbury out of business.  They were foolishly easy.  I'm pretty sure Shakespeare said "a warm biscuit doth a happy husband make."

PW and Angie

The Pioneer Woman is my obsession.  Partly because she cooks like weight gain isn't a side effect.  Partly because she gets to stay home and cook and rear (REAR!) her children.  Partly because she's married to a cowboy (Andrew is nothing to scoff at, but I don't know if he'd ever wear a cowboy hat for me.)  I don't get the cable, so I've only managed to catch her show once, but I've been an obedient follower of her website, and thanks to my generous m-i-l, I used my Christmas gift card to buy both of her cookbooks.  Now, seeing as I already own one mile of cookbooks, I was determined to make something of these books.  More than just show.  Put them to use!  (Also, putting my cookbook holder to use...it's hard to cook from a hardbound cookbook, y'all.)  So my plan is to cook through (or nearly through) both of her cookbooks.  Tonight, we start with her recipe for Scalloped/Au Gratin potatoes.  You can find her original recipe here, or if you have her new cookbook, it's on page 226.  Original recipe pasted below is from PW's website...italicized words are my own.

PW's Scalloped/Au Gratin Potatoes

4 whole Russet Potatoes, Scrubbed Clean (this makes so much!!!!)
2 Tablespoons Butter, Softened (I didn't use all the tablespoons...maybe 1/2-1 tbsp)
1-1/2 cup Heavy Cream 
1/2 cup Whole Milk 
2 Tablespoons Flour 
4 cloves Garlic, Finely Minced (the cookbook only calls for 3, so I used that and it was perfect for us)
1 teaspoon Salt 
Freshly Ground Pepper, to taste 
1 cup Sharp Cheddar Cheese, Freshly Grated (I used 2 cups, unfreshly grated, because more is more)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Smear softened butter all over the bottom of a baking dish. (I used a 9x13 glass pyrex dish.)
Slice potatoes, then cut slices into fourths. (For future makings, I would cut the potatoes down smaller.  They cooked okay in fourths...I think it's just a psychological thing that I wanted the chunks to be smaller.  You could also dust off your mandolin and make paper thin slices.  Don't have a mandolin?  You can borrow mine.  But you'll have to dust it off yourself.)
In a separate bowl, whisk together cream, milk, flour, minced garlic, salt, and plenty of freshly ground black pepper.
Place 1/3 of the potatoes in the bottom of the baking dish. Pour 1/3 of the cream mixture over the potatoes.
Repeat this two more times, ending with the cream mixture. (The cookbook directions just have you chuck the potatoes in the dish and pour the cream mix over the potatoes.  That's how I did it.  I always favor lazy over more work.)
 Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake for 20 minutes, or until potatoes are golden brown and really bubbling. (I stirred up the potatoes that were on top because they weren't swimming in the delicious scallop/gratin sauce and I wanted to make sure they got their bath.)
Add grated cheese to the top of the potatoes and bake for 3 to 5 more minutes, until cheese is melted and bubbly.
Allow to stand for a few minutes before serving by the spoonful. Delicious! (Agreed!)

Potatoes are in the upper right corner, in case you mistook it for the salad